More Setbacks for Denali Wolves
I just completed another round of wolf observations, January 5-12. Since the December 2 blog entry and December observations, there have been significant losses to 4-5 more Denali study groups. Refer to previous blog entries and the August 2007 report (Reports2 page) for background and the location of each group. At least two groups, Stampede and White, lost wolves to trappers, and at least two others, Slough and Eagle, suffered natural losses. Two Toklat West wolves disappeared and the only two known remaining wolves of this group were each alone, 33 miles apart, one near a high risk hunting-trapping area 30 miles outside the established territory, without any indications as to why.
First some general comments, then the details:
The latest trapping losses provide further evidence that the map boundaries of Denali National Park do not conform to some of this world-class wildlife system’s most important ecological boundaries. Currently not one of the groups of wolves that uses the Denali area is protected from hunting and trapping. The 1980 park additions, which were originally proposed primarily to protect these wolves, were ill-conceived. Now there is much better information about the areas Denali wolves use. Adequate protective measures could be applied without expanding the park boundaries, with simple wolf hunting and trapping restrictions. The red map area shown in the December 2 blog entry remains the highest priority. There is also clear justification for protecting Denali wolves inside the entire park and outside other boundary areas. Many people are deluding themselves into believing that the lifestyle of a handful of trappers is dependent on killing these wolves and that this contributes more importantly to the greater good.
The objective in managing Denali wildlife should be to preserve the range of natural behavior, patterns, and processes, including natural changes therein. Thus the recent Stampede and White deaths should be regarded as a problem but the Slough and Eagle deaths should not. Increasingly I hear biologists and others argue otherwise - that hunting and trapping have become natural to the biology of Denali wolves and therefore should not be viewed as a biological problem.
In addition to other weaknesses in this thinking (e.g., Jan 19 entry), consider that wolves have inhabited Interior Alaska for at least 500,000 years. Humans began hunting seasonally in Denali some 12,000-13,000 years ago. But only for about the last 100 years, if that long, are they known or likely to have exerted major influences on Denali-area wolves via hunting and trapping. This is hardly even a partial eyeblink on the evolutionary scale of wolf biology. It is far too short of a period of time to qualify hunting and trapping as an evolutionary force to which a much older form of biology with such sophisticated cooperative underpinnings could adapt. The proposition doesn’t add up unless one is willing to accept almost anything as an adaptation, including an “unwolfing” of the species or some other bizarre outcome (Aug 1996 paper: 1075, Reports page). Even if there were major hunting-trapping impacts for 12,000-13,000 years, this would still amount to less than 2-3 percent of the wolves’ history of contending with an almost opposite set of biological challenges.
Details of the latest observations:
• Stampede consisted of 11 wolves in late October and 10 on November 18, my last good count of this group in 2007. Radio collar signals indicated Stampede was about 20 miles outside its territory to the northeast from at least December 8-12. Sometime between then and December 25, a two-and-a-half-year-old radio-collared Stampede female was caught in a trap or snare in the same area, a few miles outside the far northeast park boundary 4-5 miles west of the Nenana River (just northwest of the northern extension of the red area shown on the map in the Dec 2 blog entry). The trapper returned the female’s radio collar to NPS but did not provide information as to any uncollared wolves he may have caught with the female (T. Meier, pers. commun.). During my next counts on January 10-11, there were seven Stampede wolves, including the two remaining radio collars, leaving the possibility that several had been trapped.
This trapped Stampede female occupied one of two dens, 12 miles apart, that the group used simultaneously in spring and summer 2007. She and the others attended 4-6 pups together at a late-summer rendezvous site, which means that she may have produced some or all of the pups (it was not possible to count pups earlier at either of the dens).
• White, one of several groups in the central area of Denali that sporadically migrate to distant winter hunting areas (Dec 2007 paper, Reports2 page), began the winter as six wolves, and all six were still together within the established territory through at least December 8. By mid-late December, the group departed on an extraterritorial foray at least 30 miles and probably 57 miles northward. By late December, a 105 pound, three-year-old male that NPS radio-collared in late November (T. Meier, pers. commun.) was dead in a trap or snare on an established trapline at the 57-mile location, 12 miles outside the north park boundary. He was still there when I last checked his radio-collar signal on January 12. It is likely that others of the group were with him when he was trapped. Until the trapper returns the collar to NPS, it won’t be possible to determine how many others may have been trapped; I was unable to determine this during low-level circling at the site, due to the forest cover.
At least two other White wolves, both radio-collared adult females (one transmitting only via GPS satellite uploads - T. Meier, pers. commun.), were in a heavily forested hot springs area at the 30-mile location of the foray by late December-early January. One and probably both were still there when I last checked on January 12. They were within a few hundred yards of the 10 resident Bearpaw wolves and the dead Slough alpha female (below). We watched the 10 Bearpaws chase one of the White females less than a hundred yards behind but then give up after a few hundred yards. The wolves of all three groups (and perhaps others) were at this hot springs together with bald eagles, ravens, and undoubtedly other species to eat salmon, as I also observed at another hot springs area 40 miles away (further details about this foraging behavior in a later entry).
Thus it is known only that at least 1-2 of the Whites were still alive and together as of January 12, with at least one other of the six present at the beginning of the winter, a male, dead in a trap or snare. Regardless of how many others might still be alive, the trapped wolf was the only breeding-age male. If any other males are still alive, they are pups that won’t mature sexually until 2009.
• Slough began the winter as a pair of adults, up to four of their one-and-a-half-year-olds from 2006, and their four pups of 2007. The alpha male died of an undetermined cause between October 28 and November 1, and bad flying weather has precluded counts of the group since then. An NPS radio-tracking flight (T. Meier, pers. commun.) determined that at least one of the remaining Slough wolves, the collared alpha female, was at the hot springs mentioned above (regarding White) by December 26. This is almost 20 miles outside the established Slough territory. She was in the same area as the resident Bearpaw wolves and above White wolves. Another NPS flight found the Slough femaie still alive at the hot springs on January 8. She was dead at this location, within a few hundred yards of the current locations of Bearpaw, White, and an unidentified wolf, when I tracked all three groups on January 10-12 (as indicated above, the attraction is salmon). Most likely she was killed by wolves from one of these groups; there was no human activity in the area. Her death means that Slough siblings (2006 litter) could produce pups in May 2008. Any such inbreeding would not be a first for Denali wolves or likely a problem.
• The Eagle pair, a young male and old female, produced their first pups - two - in 2007. All four seemed to be doing well in the established territory as of 12:45 p.m. on January 11. The female was dead from a natural cause in the same area when we returned at 2 p.m. the next day, and one of the pups was limping badly on an injured hind leg. We were able to get a good look while circling closely. The dead female was laying on her side atop the snow in open terrain, intact, with no indications (blood, tracks, etc) of a violent death; nor was there any obvious blood on the limping pup. There was virtually no possibility of a confrontation with any other study group at this time and location, except perhaps (a slim chance) with the missing Toklat West young adult and pup. Cause of death will not be determined until retrieval of the carcass and necropsy.
• Toklat West (Grant Creek) began the winter as three young adults, probably siblings, and their two surviving pups of 2007. One of the pups disappeared between October 29 and November 1, but the four other wolves remained together through at least December 12, within the established territory during all of my observations. At least two of the four - the likely breeders (both radio collared) - were still together near or just outside the northern edge of their territory when an NPS flight (T. Meier, pers. commun.) tracked next, on December 26.
The radio-collared female was ranging alone in three widely separated areas of the territory during the next observations (by me), January 7-10, but the radio-collared male was nowhere to be heard. We found him on January 11-12 traveling southward, alone, along central and southern segments of the east park boundary, 30-33 miles from the collared female and their established territory. There has been no further information as of this writing. It is worth recalling from the August 2007 report (Reports2 page) and December 2 blog entry that the Toklat West wolves have a history of leaving unexpectedly on distant, extended extraterritorial forays to the south (across the Alaska Range), east, and northeast, including into the dangerous trapping-hunting area shown in red on the December 2 map.
Updates to the December 2 blog:
• NPS received confirmation (T. Meier, pers. commun.) that the Toklat East female was trapped near the southeast corner of the red map area (Dec 2 blog) in late November, after a local (Healy area) trapper returned her radio collar at the ADF&G office in Fairbanks. The trapper indicated this was the only wolf he caught in that area, so evidently her mate left before he arrived. NPS was about to radio collar the male while it was still possible to locate him via his collared mate (and take a DNA sample, etc). Now it will never be possible to identify him or determine if he is still alive. These two wolves left the Toklat family together last April and settled in the neighboring area to the east. They were almost certainly siblings, so among other losses is a unique, invaluable opportunity to confirm their relationship and possibly follow the entire history of an inbred family, especially its reproductive success. Not surprisingly, Toklat appears to be traveling more deeply and extensively eastward into the resulting vacancy, with the higher risks and other problems that this implies. I will be posting a separate blog update on Toklat soon.
• The Margaret male’s malfunctioning radio collar is uploading GPS satellite locations again (T. Meier, pers. commun.). These locations confirm that he is still alive and, as of the first week of January, continuing to range mostly in the dangerous red map area (Dec 2 entry) and somewhat further east and west. As discussed previously, there is a good possibility that wolves accompanying him were trapped or shot in that area earlier this winter.
• There is nothing new to report about Lower Savage and no way to determine the status of any (unlikely) survivors, given the loss of both radio-collared adults. The entire family group is almost certainly history. I have reason to believe that the trapper who killed at least five of these wolves in November did not feel the alpha female’s pelt was of very good quality, and trappers have told me that they are often unhappy with the pelts of six-month-old pups. Recall that this family consisted of the breeding pair, a young adult, and eight 5-6-month-old pups. There is a good chance that some or all of these wolves were killed for pelts that have since been thrown away or are beginning to rot in the corner of some dark shed.
• There appears to be at least one currently active trapline in the northeast park boundary area east of Savage River, i.e., in the red map area of the December 2 blog. This trapline is located in the southwest corner of the red area; it follows a series of snowmachine trails that wind through the forest from the park boundary northward for a mile or two along the east side of Savage River. This is where Denali groups from near and far, including Toklat in 2005, have suffered the most serious trapping losses in recent years. When I circled closely above on January 8, I saw blood, torn-up ground, and snowmachine tracks that indicated the trapper had probably caught and removed at least one wolf recently. Margaret, Toklat Springs, Stampede, Toklat, and Toklat West are among the possible groups from which uncollared wolves could have been trapped in this area recently.
Wolves wearing radio collars can be identified when they are trapped. However, most wolves do not wear collars and thus when they disappear in an area where trapping is allowed it is seldom possible even to determine if it was a natural versus trapping loss. Trappers are not required to report anything but general information about the uncollared wolves they catch, and this isn’t required until 30 days after the trapping season at the end of May. The resulting research and management uncertainties compound the problems arising from the trapping losses themselves.
Jan 23, 2008
The Stampede family of Denali, October 2007, scenting and milling around excitedly in an area of its territory where 16 Toklat wolves trespassed a half hour earlier. A young adult Stampede breeding female and possibly two others of this family were trapped during Stampede’s own extraterritorial foray, outside the park, in December 2007.